Speaking up When Spoken Over: Resilience in Leadership
I had the pleasure to speak with Ms. Melissa McCaw for this podcast project. The daughter of a British-Jamaican immigrant, McCaw holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Wesleyan University and a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public Finance and Budgeting from the University of Connecticut (Biography – Director of finance Melissa McCaw). Under Governor Ned Lamont, her appointment in January of 2019 made her the first African-American woman to serve as Secretary in the Office of Policy and Management (Altimari). In this position as Connecticut’s Budget Chief, she was effectively the governor’s highest-ranking financial advisor, overseeing labor negotiations and policy proposals in addition to managing the state’s budget. Currently, McCaw serves as the Director of Finance in the Town of East Hartford and is responsible for overseeing various departments from Risk Management to Purchasing (Biography – Director of finance Melissa McCaw). As a fellow town employee, I was able to initially connect with McCaw over email.
We covered a myriad of topics in this insightful conversation. We spoke about the intimate impact of local politics and how being so connected to the people whose lives your decisions ultimately impact adds an additional sense of responsibility. McCaw spoke of her own lived experiences—rooted in the intersection of her identities in being Black and being a woman—as impacting her lens when proposing policies and budget reforms. She considers extensively the impacts of her work on the lives of the Black and Brown communities in which she grew up. A poignant example was diverting state funds during the Covid-19 emergency, setting up additional Covid testing sites and transportation in Black and Brown communities where testing numbers were consistently lower. In completing her day-to-day tasks and overseeing her financial team, she describes herself as a strong leader who holds herself accountable to high standards. This does not come at the expense of her team, placing emphasis on ensuring their happiness and fostering a collaborative environment to help them expand outside their comfort zone. Furthermore, we touched on the heightened demands of being a leader and finding a balance between a challenging, fulfilling work position with that of maintaining a personal life. She cites her willingness to explore a diversity of experiences and figure out what worked – and didn’t work for her—as critical to her workplace success.
The greatest takeaway for me from our discussion was how with great leadership also comes great challenges. Following speaking on prominent Black women leaders she idealizes, she articulated how “leadership can be painful, [that] there is a burden to leadership”. Unsurprisingly, with these high-profile and taxing positions comes a lot of personal sacrifices. This was only magnified for McCaw, who as “the first woman of color to hold the position of OPM secretary, it [was] not easy to work professionally at this high level in a field that has been dominated by white males,” (Altimari). Often, McCaw voiced being shut out of important conversations and having to speak up when spoken over. Nonetheless, being confident in her skillset and demanding the respect she so well deserved has warranted her much success in the finance and political spheres alike.
Citations
Altimari, Dave. “Melissa McCaw Confirms Tension in Lamont Administration.” CT Mirror, 22 July 2022, ctmirror.org/2022/02/09/with-praise-and-pointed-silence-melissa-mccaw-confirms-tension-in-lamont-administration/.
“Biography – Director of Finance Melissa McCaw.” Easthartfordct, www.easthartfordct.gov/finance/pages/biography-director-of-finance-melissa-mccaw. Accessed 9 May 2023.
Photo Courtesy of the Town of East Hartford
Music Courtesy of the Free Music Archive